The Roar’s Wallabies Vs Ireland live blog
Roar Guru By The Roar, 15 Nov 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
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- ireland brian o'driscoll, Rugby Union, wallabies
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Australia's Berrick Barnes tackles Brian O'Driscoll of Ireland during their rugby union test match in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, June 14, 2008. AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill
It promises to be one of the matches of the season, so join The Roar’s live blog on Monday morning at 2am as we watch Australia’s grand slam hopefuls, the Wallabies, take on a tough Ireland side hungry for a Southern Hemisphere scalp.
Unfortunately for the Wallabies, leading Ireland to their first Six Nations crown in more than half a century hasn’t quenched Brian O’Driscoll’s appetite for major rugby spoils.
In what’s set to be a cracking match, Roar columnist David Pocock takes over from George Smith on the side of the scrum; and a young backline duels with a speedy set of Irish outside backs.
Will the faltering form of the Wallabies in 2009 be maintained?
Watch the match on TV and leave comments and interact with other Roar readers in real time here from Monday at 2am onwards.
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November 14th 2009 @ 10:46am
Vented Relief said | November 14th 2009 @ 10:46am | Report comment
Picomoles…. how strong is that man? He was swiping away the likes of Botha, Burger and Kankowski like they were halfbacks and making 10m with every run. Impressive.
November 14th 2009 @ 9:00pm
Parisien said | November 14th 2009 @ 9:00pm | Report comment
Picamoles, Harinordoquy and Dusautoir all seemed to enjoy bashing the Boks. It was a part of a fairly simple strategy to win. Out -bully them, and get it on! Did you see their faces as they came out the tunnel, and then sang the anthem? all the French forwards worked really well as a group, clean outs, rucking, mauls, tackles, pick and drives; inspiring stuff. Horwill will remember Harinordoquy’s rumbling talents from June 2008.
Yes Vented Relief, Picamoles is one tough strong guy. The rumour is that he is the one who bashed Bastereaud that night in a Wellington hotel, a small disagreement over the local girls they took back that night…Best not to argue with him.
Its not often you see Botha, Matfield, and Burger all looking bloodied and dazed, seeking medical attention.
The backs played some good rushing defence too, with some good runs, but it was the forwards’ night.
November 14th 2009 @ 9:05pm
Shahsan said | November 14th 2009 @ 9:05pm | Report comment
I think the real French trump card was the guy singing the South African anthem. No one apart from Bismarck could quite get teh right key to sing teh somg, Habana and Brussouw wanted to laugh while the Afrikaner boys were obviously livid. In other words, they all lost concentration. Went downhill from there.
November 14th 2009 @ 9:10pm
Parisien said | November 14th 2009 @ 9:10pm | Report comment
Yeah, where in Toulouse did they find that guy!? He even quoted a snatch of Bob Marley mid-way through the SA anthem! I think there will be an official complaint. Him and his two djembe players looked stoned to the gills as well. The French TV commentator drew a deep breath and described it as ” a most interesting and original interpretation”.
November 14th 2009 @ 9:28pm
Shahsan said | November 14th 2009 @ 9:28pm | Report comment
Yah, the first half of the song was not bad: a reggae-jazz version sung in an interesting key, but appropriate only in a jazz club probably, not before a match.
The second half, however, ie the former Die Stem part, was a disaster. He came in at top key and had nowhere to go from there. Hence the Marley riff. No wonder Matfield and Shalk Burger were livid.
the Setanta commentators said the experienced South African players had “probably never heard their anthem sung like that before”.
Maybe this could be a new pre-matchweapon: NZ has the haka, France pick bad singers for the opposition’s anthem. It could catch on.
November 14th 2009 @ 7:21pm
Shahsan said | November 14th 2009 @ 7:21pm | Report comment
I hope the French go on from here towards 2011 and win teh whole shebang. They’re long overdue.
But such a result, coupled with NZ’s new-found surge in soccer/football, might see an exodus of Pakeha kids away from rugby. What a tragedy that would be too.
November 15th 2009 @ 1:09am
Damo said | November 15th 2009 @ 1:09am | Report comment
I’ve noticed for years how visiting teams get raw deals with often a woman with an impossible to match high pitch or a strange arrangement means the visitors can’t easily sing along. Another HGAdvantage
November 15th 2009 @ 1:34am
pothale said | November 15th 2009 @ 1:34am | Report comment
“Visiting teams get raw deals with women singing in the wrong pitch….!”
You are kidding, right?
I’ve heard of scrabbling around for excuses, but that’s a new low.
November 15th 2009 @ 1:50am
ohtani's jacket said | November 15th 2009 @ 1:50am | Report comment
That Italy/New Zealand Test was the most farcical end to a Test match I have ever seen. An absolute rugby PR disaster. Terrible Test match. Awful All Black performance. None of these guys should play next week.
November 15th 2009 @ 10:31am
Vented Relief said | November 15th 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
And how could the italians be penalised for not getting the ball out of the maul when it was moving forward at pace? Sure it moved sideways for a very brief moment, but bloody hell Dicko, think of the spirit and momentum of the game!!! This was the worst game I have seen him referee.
November 15th 2009 @ 3:52pm
Jerry said | November 15th 2009 @ 3:52pm | Report comment
If you’re talking about the incident at about the 48 minute mark, it actually barely moved anywhere but sideways for nearly 20 seconds during which time Dickinson called “That’s once” followed about 10 seconds later by “Now USE IT”. It was at that point that the Italians got a shove on followed by the maul going down.
It’s unfortunate for the Italians in that they may not have heard the call, but you can’t really blame Dickinson for that. He called that the maul had stopped forward momentum twice at which point if the ball doesn’t come out, use it or lose it applies.
November 15th 2009 @ 3:59am
pothale said | November 15th 2009 @ 3:59am | Report comment
Do you reckon it should have been a penalty try to the Italians at the end with the all the penalties, OJ?
November 15th 2009 @ 9:04am
ohtani's jacket said | November 15th 2009 @ 9:04am | Report comment
Anything would’ve been better than what Stuart Dickinson was trying to achieve. Man did he have a bad game.
November 15th 2009 @ 3:53pm
Jerry said | November 15th 2009 @ 3:53pm | Report comment
Pothale/Shahsan –
Penalty tries are not awarded for repeat infringements. The sanction for repeat infringements are cards.
November 15th 2009 @ 5:52pm
Shahsan said | November 15th 2009 @ 5:52pm | Report comment
It depends. if the ref decides a try would have been scored if not for the defending team using illegal means, eg repeated collapsing, then he has the option of awarding a penalty try. the yellow card option applies there and anywhere else, but the penalty try option can apply only at 5m scrums obviously
November 15th 2009 @ 5:56pm
Jerry said | November 15th 2009 @ 5:56pm | Report comment
No, it doesn’t. Whether the infringement is repeated or not is irrelevant.
The only consideration for a penalty try is whether a try would probably have been scored if not for the specific infringement being called. It makes no difference if it’s been committed 20 times in succession.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:05pm
Shahsan said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:05pm | Report comment
We’re not in disagreement there. He can give a penalty try if he thinks the attacking team would have scored if not for the infirngment. But no ref would ever award it if teh scrum collpased once. But if it happened again then he probably would.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:17pm
Jerry said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:17pm | Report comment
They might award one on the first collapse if the scrum was backpedalling and was collapsed 1 metre from the line. Regardless, the All Black scrum did not backpedal significantly at any point in that final stand, so there was not one occasion when anyone could realistically say a try would probably have been scored.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:28pm
Shahsan said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:28pm | Report comment
Ok, fair enough. While the Italians had the ascendancy they just weren’t good enough to capitalise, and the ABs’ resolve was remakable.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:37pm
Jerry said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:37pm | Report comment
The Italians suffered cause they didn’t have anything else. If they’d been confident in their ability to pick and go or spin it, half of those reset scrums would have been a great platform. But all they could do was keep throwing their eggs in that same basket.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:44pm
Shahsan said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:44pm | Report comment
Yes, agreed about that. Very limited options once they get past the front 8.
November 15th 2009 @ 2:56pm
Shahsan said | November 15th 2009 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
I think so too, Pothale. Had it been the Italians defending their tryline and conceding 3-4 scrum penalties in succession against any of the Big Nations, I am certain Dickinson, and most other refs, would have blown for a penalty try. A bit like Paddy O’Brien’s performance in the 1999 World Cup (Fiji vs France).
November 15th 2009 @ 5:21pm
Spiro Zavos said | November 15th 2009 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
The Italian halfback should have been penalised virtually every Italian scrum for not putting the ball into the scrum. He would wait until the Italian pack made some progress before even trying to feed the ball. This is illegal. The All Blacks did not have too much trouble on their own ball when it was put in quickly, even though Stu Dickinson repeatedly warned the All Blacks halfback to put the ball in straight. There were no warnings about the slow feed, as far as I could tell.
Several of those interminable scrums at the end of the Test should have been penalties to the All Blacks rather than Italy, as the New Zealand scrum on several occasions went right over the top of the Italians.
Dickinson was right to send Tialata off if he believed he was infringing frequently. You can’t award a penalty try for an event that does not involve some actually trying to score a try. But with the 7-man scrum the All Blacks were in danger of conceding a push-over try or a penalty try from a push-over drive that was stopped illegally. But somehow the All Blacks scrum held.
I was amazed too at the lack of nous of the All Blacks when they took scrums instead of lineouts from crooked throws from the Italians.
It is always very difficult to beat a side comprehensively when they make no attempt to run the ball. You can’t force errors and make breakouts against this style of play. Of course, the no-rugby style also means that it is extremely difficult to score tries and actually win the Test.
But as far as the Italians were concerned this didn’t matter as they were not trying to win the Test, only to keep the score down which they did bery successfully. This was the ‘worst’ win the All Blacks have had against Italy.
A worrying thing for the Wallabies tonight is that Italy and France showed a very strong scrum which entirely disrupted their opponents. If the Ireland scrum is half as good as the Italian or French scrum the Wallabies are in trouble.
My belief and hope is that it is not a great scrum. But we shall see.
November 15th 2009 @ 5:50pm
ohtani's jacket said | November 15th 2009 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
The Italians were stupid to keep trying for a push over try.
November 15th 2009 @ 6:17pm
chris syd aust said | November 15th 2009 @ 6:17pm | Report comment
should the wallabies be worried about scotland after their game against Fiji? Pity Fiji only can really come together as a team for the world cups… there whole game plan should have revolved around getting THE ball to Nagala! very poor choices at times – i think they should still bring back the fat one CauCau too lol.
cmon 1:30am…